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Red Rock West (1992)

A review by Damian Cannon.
Copyright © Movie Reviews UK 1997
A good natured thriller set in the wide open spaces of the Midwest and crammed with twists and turns, there's a lot of fun to be had with this here movie. Crawling out of his car, parked on the dusty roadside, Michael (Nicolas Cage) looks just like he's spent the latest in a long line of nights sleeping on the back seat. However, there's freshly pressed shirts in the trunk and soon he's rolling into an oil-pumping station, looking for work. None is forthcoming though and Michael heads off again, down to his last five bucks. On a tip he makes it to Red Rock, a town that has a population lower than its height above sea level. Strolling into a bar, Michael orders a coffee and finds the bartender Wayne (J.T.Walsh) looking at him peculiarly. When Wayne asks "You must be Lyle, from Dallas", Michael acts on a hunch and agrees. Wayne seems to have a job for this Lyle person and Michael could sure do with the money. Unfortunately, what he doesn't realise is that the job involves killing Wayne's wife, Suzanne (Lara Flynn Boyle), for $10,000.

Taking the money up front, Michael heads out to their farm and waits for the return of Suzanne. He's not the assassin type though and, when she returns, he explains the set-up. Suzanne appears hardly shocked and promptly doubles his fee, if he'll just go and kill Wayne instead. Michael again takes the money but then heads straight for the highway out of town, after posting a letter to the sheriff which explains their tit-for-tat arrangement. It looks as though he'll get away scot-free when, in the middle of a thunderstorm, he ploughs straight into a man trying to flag him down. After his somersault across the roof this guy should be dead but he isn't and, after a moments hesitation, Michael returns to Red Rock. After a couple of bullets are taken out of the victim (and you thought that he'd just been run over!), Michael winds up getting detained by the sheriff - who happens to be Wayne. He's pretty annoyed by Michael and takes him into the wilderness for a little execution of his own.

Michael's instinct for self-preservation is strong and he manages to escape, almost getting run down in the process. Luckily the driver stops in time and gives him a lift to Red Rock, the town that Michael just can't leave. They turn up outside Wayne's Bar and the driver wants to buy Michael a drink, since they're Marine buddies. He can't refuse and then everything clicks into place - this is "Lyle from Dallas" (Dennis Hopper). Soon enough Wayne returns, to meet the real Lyle, and Michael is on the run again. Being a nice guy he jumps a ride to Suzanne's house, hoping to warn her that her life's still in danger. Before they can leave, Lyle turns up and you just know that he's man who really enjoys his work (he'd probably still do it even if he wasn't getting paid). They manage to escape, but this is a temporary state of affairs. Red Rock draws them back like bears to honey.

It's an absolute joy to find a plot so convoluted that almost every scene brings a new surprise and a cry of astonishment. In a perfect world such a complicated mess could be refined into a simple logical chain of events and, to its credit, Red Rock West goes some way towards this goal. In the first half there is a strong sense of reality (in the framework of this pseudo-noir world), but this gently slips away as the movie nears its end. This isn't a fatal problem though because the characters, and the strength with which they are acted, inject both life and humour into the tale. Cage is wonderful as the all-to-honest, nice guy who finds that honesty really does pay, while Hopper reprises his sharply honed psycho-killer persona (with surprising freshness). It sure isn't plausible but who cares?

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